If you're listening to this around Valentine's Day, there's a good chance you've recently participated in one of the world's most aggressive annual rituals of romance, panic, and procurement. In this episode, we take a long, uncomfortable look at Valentine's Day, not as a celebration of love, but as a perfectly engineered, brutally efficient global logistics operation disguised as candlelight and overpriced roses. We peel back the soft-focus UI and dig into the operating system underneath. From why Valentine's Day accounts for up to 40% of annual florist revenue, to how nearly 250 million roses are grown, cut, refrigerated, flown across continents, and delivered within a non-negotiable 72-hour window, this is offbeat learning at its most industrial. Love, it turns out, is less about emotion and more about timing, because flowers don't get delayed, they die. By the end, Valentine's Day looks less like a romantic milestone and more like a textbook case of planned obsolescence, where romance is profitable only if it expires on schedule. It's one of those random topics that, once you see the machinery behind it, becomes impossible to unsee. Love may be priceless, but expressing it apparently comes with a refrigerated, air-freighted, non-negotiable bill. Important links: 1. Valentine's Day Wikipedia page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine%27s_Day 2. More history of Valentine's Day - https://www.mentalfloss.com/holidays/valentines-day-horrible-historical-events 3. Yet another Valentine's Day origin story - https://www.npr.org/2011/02/14/133693152/the-dark-origins-of-valentines-day 4. Fairtrade Flowers in High Demand for Valentine's Day -https://supplychaindigital.com/procurement/ethical-rose-procurement-for-guilt-free-valentines 5. Valentine's Day Trends and Statistics - https://www.storyly.io/post/valentines-day-trends-and-statistics 6. Valentine's Day Spending Trends - https://floristsreview.com/valentines-day-spending-trends/ 7. Flower Logistics from Kenya - https://cargo.flowers/en/blog/post/flower-logistics-from-kenya?utm_source=chatgpt.com 8. The flower power of Valentine's Day - https://airport-world.com/the-flower-power-of-valentines-day/?utm_source=chatgpt.com 9. Temporary Beauty: The Environmental Impact of Cut Flowers - https://atmos.earth/art-and-culture/cut-flowers-environmental-carbon-cost-facts/?utm_source=chatgpt.com 10. Hidden Costs of Valentine's Day Flowers - https://www.reeveconsulting.com/2023/02/07/hidden-costs-of-valentines-day-flowers/?utm_source=chatgpt.com 11. Yes, your mother loves the flowers, but maybe not the cost of flying them in - https://theicct.org/yes-your-mother-loves-the-flowers-but-maybe-not-the-cost-of-flying-them-in/ 12. Overview of flower production in Sub-Saharan Africa - https://verite.org/initiative/africa/commodities/flowers/?utm_source=chatgpt.com 13. French group issues Valentine's Day warning that cut flowers have a variety of pesticides - https://apnews.com/article/valentine-flowers-pesticides-france-ufcque-choisir-91b99d1007ec90455a4fcd1497e5d1d0 14. The Slow Flowers Movement - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Flowers?utm_source=chatgpt.com Don't Know, Do Care is the brainchild of Ashmita, Sandy, and Prakhar, three friends from different backgrounds and interests. Ashmita works in sustainability, Sandy's an entrepreneur (puke) who'd rather not be, and Prakhar works with Sandy and is just trying to make sense of it all. Three mildly confused friends, one weirdly specific topic each week. We don't know much, but we care just enough to talk about it for up to an hour each week. Don't Know, Do Care is produced by "Ghar Pe Productions", edited by Prakhar and Sandy, critiqued (thoroughly) by Ashmita, and enjoyed mostly by our friends. Thanks for giving us a listen!
